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DELAWARE, Ohio — A Delaware city councilman and three members of the Delaware Area Chamber of
Commerce urged the Delaware County commissioners yesterday morning to finish the Sawmill Parkway
extension, a project that has been in the works for years but has yet to even break ground.

Construction of the new road, which would extend Sawmill Parkway north from Home Road to Rt. 42,
has been delayed in part because county and city officials cannot agree on how the road will be
funded.

Andrew Brush, a Delaware councilman, said at yesterday’s county commissioners meeting that the
extension would bring development and jobs to Delaware and make it easier for people to travel
between Delaware and points south, including Powell and Columbus.

“There is a dearth of high-capacity north-south conduits in Delaware County, especially west of
U.S. 23,” Brush said. “If Sawmill Parkway is not built, the traffic it would have carried will have
to be accommodated by other new roads, roads that will be far more expensive than Sawmill
Parkway."

Three members of the chamber of commerce also encouraged the commissioners to complete the
road.

But Jim Hurt, a Delaware resident, asked the commissioners to abandon the project. Hurt said he
thought the money the county would spend to build the road could be better spent on other
infrastructure or economic-development projects.

The city council in October proposed sharing 25 percent of the road’s costs within the city
limits. That total has not been calculated, however.

The extension would stretch almost 6 miles and has an estimated cost of about $50 million. About
11/2 miles of the extension is inside the city limits. County Engineer Chris Bauserman said another
mile or so of the proposed parkway west of the city line could be annexed into the city soon.

The county commissioners said they would respond to the city in writing this week. They talked
about the matter in closed session yesterday morning.